Yaşar Demiroz

Bike

Around the lakes in the Finnish city of Tampere

Eat

Fresh fruit, especially figs

Drink

Turkish tea at any time of the day

Sleep

Under a plane tree, beside a river

The eighth child born to an 11-child family in southeastern Turkey, Yaşar moved to Smyrna (now Izmir) in 1997. After seven years of high school and military academy, he pursued undergraduate degrees in civil engineering and tourism, followed by continuing education at the Mediterranean Civilizations Research Institute in Antalya, Turkey. In addition to his interest in ancient civilizations, Yaşar has been a member of Turkey’s Orienteering National Team since 2006, with winning titles at the Southeast European and Mediterranean Orienteering Championships. It was orienteering training that led him to cycling, and he’s been leading hiking and biking tours since 2014. Above all, he lives his life by the words of Socrates: “An unexamined life is not worth living.”